Geological Challenges in Radioactive Waste Isolation

Over the past forty years, the development of the technology needed to isolate radioactive waste in underground rock systems has been found to be a formidable problem. This is especially the case in connection with high-level waste (HLW) after its removal from operations in nuclear power plants. There is also the additional problem of isolating low- and intermediate-level waste (LILW). Significant quantities of LILW are generated from various sources, and while they are not as long-lived in terms of radioactivity and do not pose the same level of difficulty as HLW, they constitute another problem for the nuclear industry.